


Snapshot from A Life that Never Happened

by Wolfwillow4213



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, AU- nothing hurts, F/M, Gen, a cupboard full of spiders and brooms, there was no war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 23:37:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16397252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfwillow4213/pseuds/Wolfwillow4213
Summary: The Potters were perfectly happy, thank you very much.





	Snapshot from A Life that Never Happened

One: The Family that Loved

 

      Mr. and Mrs. Potter, of number four, Griffin Lane, were proud to say they were perfectly happy, thank you very much. They were the exact sort of people who you’d expect wonderful and magical things to happen because they were very much in love.

       Mr. James Potter was a thin wiry sort of man with dark messy hair that refused to be tamed. He had been an Auror, a sort of policeman, for a brief time before realizing he’d rather be at home. Mrs. Lily Potter was a redheaded woman with a long neck that she put to use peering over cauldrons and keeping an eye on her favorite troublemakers. The Potters had a small son named Harry and, in their opinion, there was no finer boy anywhere.

      The Potters wanted for nothing in their neat little house with its little cupboard under the stairs used to house spiders and brooms and nothing more. They had a cat named Whiskers, because James was terrible at naming things, honestly Prongs, Lily Potter despaired. But most importantly, the Potter family was larger than just the three of them. Sirius Black was a rakishly handsome bloke with grey mischievous eyes and black hair. He rode a motorbike every time he came to visit, which was most days. Trailing behind him would be a tired man who had faint scars and cable knit sweaters and brown eyes that smiled named Remus Lupin. And somewhere between them was a stout, stodgy bloke of a nervous disposition with a round face and long nose called Peter Pettigrew.

      The Potters had secrets, the type held behind sly smiles and playful words that didn’t always mean what they ought. Here is one. Remus Lupin had a furry little problem, which often lead to most believing that he had a badly behaved rabbit. Another. Sirius was a sly dog. And there were endless jokes about Peter needing to nibble on cheese. 

      Lily had a sort of secret that wasn’t joked about or alluded to. She had a sister named Petunia that she had a falling out with. The sisters had been born to a muggle family and had been close before Lily got the letter, before she had met the Snape boy down the street. Her going off to Hogwarts had put a strain on their relationship. But Lily had tried, with inkstained letters and ice mice and potions she made that weren’t really potions. And Petunia had tried, with typed face letters and opal mints and pressed flowers from their parents’ garden. It had changed when Petunia had met that awful boy, Vernon Dursley, and decided she was going to be his wife and live in a nice house and live a nice normal life. It had changed when normal had meant a life without magic, without Lily. But the redheaded woman still had tried, making herself less around her sister and her boyfriend. James had changed things, when Lily had brought him home to meet her family and Vernon. Her husband was bright and colorful and a wizard through and through and Petunia had asked, demanded that they not come back. Lily still sent wedding and birth announcements and holiday cards.

      This is how on November 1 of 1981, the Potters found a secret on their doorstep. 

      The night before had been a full moon, which meant that the boys had tumbled through the fireplace early in the morning, tired and grinning and joking. James headed to the kitchen and began to fuss with breakfast, eggs floating through the air, pots and pans clattering, and bread slicing itself into toast with a wave of his wand. Peter bundled Remus into a kitchen chair, shoving chocolate and tea into the man’s hands. And Sirius snuck his way into the nursery to see his favorite godson. So when Lily woke later, breakfast was made, Harry was being entertained, and her troublemakers were whispering quietly about some new scheme. James greeted her with a kiss and a cup of tea. Just as she was about to sit, a knock sounded at the door.

      When she opened the door, Lily was tempted to immediately close it, but Petunia was standing on her stoop with a carpetbag and baby in shaking hands and a curling bruise across her face. Years of hurt couldn’t be fixed with a single word or in an instant, but forgiveness can earned. And Lily knew that Vernon had been an awful sort. Men who demanded women to become less than what they were are never to be trusted. And Petunia was pruned in the worst way.

      “I-,” Petunia begins to say, shrinking in on herself. There’s a brief second where she looks conflicted, as if she isn’t sure what to say. That seems wrong to Lily, her sister has always been a woman that knew her own mind, filled with decisiveness, even when those decisions hurt.

      Before the “I” turned to “I shouldn’t be here,” Lily smiles widely and says warmly, “Tuney! Come in.” She ushers the other woman in before Petunia can flee or Lily’s courage fail her. 

      The kitchen falls silent as they enter. Each of the men had heard in whispered tones about Lily’s sister, if not the whole story. James didn’t care for the woman that had cast his wife aside, but he could see the white knuckles clutching the carpetbag and the terrible quietness of the baby and the bruise on her face. He could also see that Lily’s smile is brittle and the rage in her green green eyes. So he put on his easiest grin, lolling cheerfulness, and fusses with the tea cozy.

     “Everyone, this is Petunia, my sister. She’ll be staying with us for awhile.”  

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction, so make of it what you may...


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